Project: Steampunk'd TJ11

[UrbanSmooth]

Of course!

[Fuganater]

Performance-PCs.com will go down as the fastest company to ship sponsor gear ever! I placed my order and got it not even a week later.

Here is the gear!



XSPC EX360 Multi Port and EX240 Multi Port





I like these rads because they have such a high FPI.



6 ports on each rad!



Up next is 2 Bitspower D5/655 mod kits





Installed on the stock pump tops. Temporary setup because I will be using a Bitspower Dual D5/655 pump top in the mod.





Finally the Silverstone Slim ODD and SSD/HDD bay. I really like this because I can fit my Slim ODD and up to 4 SSD/2.5" HDDs in it.








Thats all from them. More modding in the next update.

Cheers till then,

Fuga

[MattSharkey]

what sort of tubing are you using for the water cooling? I know it would be a pain in the ***, but I think brass pipes would look absolutely sick in this build.


subbed

[UrbanSmooth]

Brass pipes ala Bioshock FTW!

[Fuganater]

Originally Posted by MattSharkey

what sort of tubing are you using for the water cooling? I know it would be a pain in the ***, but I think brass pipes would look absolutely sick in this build.

subbed

Right now I will be using Clear Durelene tubing with Mayhem's Coolant. Copper pipes would be cool but its very expensive. Also Bitspower does not make their SLI fittings in Bronze Age so I would have to strip them down and repaint them.

Originally Posted by UrbanSmooth

Brass pipes ala Bioshock FTW!

Maybe one day...

Additional Comment:

Now I need your opinion! I got 3 different types of Leather fabric and I'm not sure which one to use. I'm going to post a few pictures of each and I'd like to hear what you have to say!


Option 1:

On the door



Close up



On the mobo






Option 2:

On the door



Close up



On the mobo






Option 3:

On the door



Close up



On the mobo







Please leave your feedback! I really want to know what you guys thing. The leather will cover the door panels, the front bezel and the motherboard's "thermal armor". Hope to hear from you guys!!

Cheers till next time,

Fuga

Additional Comment:

Its pretty much come down to 1 and 3 where where the 2 that I liked to begin with. I'm going to go with option 1 because it is a bit more subtle and it won't take your attention away from the accent parts that I'll be painting. Some people have expressed concern with putting leather on the armor as it would heat up the mobo too much. The Sabertooth P67 is already a hot mobo to begin with and adding another layer of insulation might not be the best idea so I'm painting it to match the interior of the case.

A modding update is coming very soon!

[Fuganater]

I got tons of work done so this update might be a bit big.... sorry but at least it has lots of pictures for you

Up first is the 50mm assist fan for the mobo.



You can see that the cable is quite long. So I need to fix that.



After I got it to the correct length I plugged it in and the wire instantly broke at the connector.



So I did it again thinking I screwed up but it happened again! So the fan is in the trash now and I ordered a new one from Xoxide and hopefully it will be better quality.


I cut and straightened out the part of the thermal armor by the MOS block. Looks good now.





Here is a shot of the RAM. Nice Corsair Dominator!





I wanted to do a test fit so here are all the blocks on the mobo.



Time for some sleeving so I got out my trusty box of MDPC-X sleeving and went to work. This color works best I think to kinda match the rust.







Next I painted the 360 and 240 rad, mounted the grills and fans on them and sleeved the fans. I'm short a few fans and fan grills so the 240 does not have them on it yet.



I also painted the XSPC rad brackets.

[Fuganater]

I've heard good things about the LutroO sleeving tool so I figured I'd pick one up and try it out. I'll be using it for the PSU sleeving.




Since I decided to paint the thermal armor to match the interior of the case I wanted to remove some of the little indentations on it. So I got out the Bondo and lathered it on.













Next I sanded it down just a little bit because I wanted to keep some of the imperfections.

[Fuganater]

I then coated it with primer and the iron paint.



And here it is after a few coats of the rust solution stuff.







Put some clear coat on and put it back on the mobo.















That's all for this update.

Here is what I'm currently waiting for to arrive:
Gold paint
Spray adhesive
50mm Fan
120mm Fan grills
Lamptron FC10

I'm sure there is more but that's all I can think of right now. I'm travelling for the next few days so I probably won't have any work done till next weekend. Hope your enjoying the mod.

Cheers till next time,

Fuga

[thread]

I reckon the third leather.

[Mindwarp]

The third sample of leather looks like a natural fit with the scheme but I'd be a little worried about heat buildup with leather in there.

[Fuganater]

Originally Posted by thread

I reckon the third leather.

Thanks for voting!

Originally Posted by Mindwarp

The third sample of leather looks like a natural fit with the scheme but I'd be a little worried about heat buildup with leather in there.

I didn't put the leather on the mobo so it will stay nice and cool.

[mimart7]

I think third piece of leather works best, too.

[ORL]

Third and First. My preferred is the third.

It would drive me nuts having something that looked rusty next to me on my desk. But I love steampunk builds. Keep it up its going to look great.

[Playap0wnr]

Man....that rust effect on the smooth thermal armor looks SLICK. Nice job!!!

[kwiksilver]

voiding warranties like a boss! This is shaping up to be an amazing case mod.

[Jahova]

I like this idea.

[StephenP2003]

One of the coolest case mods I've seen in a long time. Can't wait to see it finished.

[pheonix991]

Very good work.

[Fuganater]

Originally Posted by ORL

Third and First. My preferred is the third.

It would drive me nuts having something that looked rusty next to me on my desk. But I love steampunk builds. Keep it up its going to look great.

Haha! The outside will look much different

Originally Posted by Playap0wnr

Man....that rust effect on the smooth thermal armor looks SLICK. Nice job!!!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by kwiksilver

voiding warranties like a boss! This is shaping up to be an amazing case mod.

Only way to mod right?

Originally Posted by Jahova

I like this idea.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by StephenP2003

One of the coolest case mods I've seen in a long time. Can't wait to see it finished.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by pheonix991

Very good work.

Thanks! Hopefully I'll have time to post an update tonight.

Additional Comment:

Sorry for the delay in updates. We took a trip to South Africa for some medical appointments last week. Got to do a ton of things down there including visiting a Lion Park!! Was pretty cool to be able to pet some lion cubs.






On with the modding!

I picked up some UN Radiator mounting brackets which are so freaking awesome. They allow you to mount a radiator in your 5.25" bays.



And here it is.





Above it I put the Silverstone Slim DVD drive bay. The rad is touching it because I have to have enough room below the rad to put the pumps.




I decided to install all the rads to see how everything would fit. Here is the 4x120



A surprise will be going in this vacant spot



And the 3x120



Installed the PSU to make sure I had enough clearance for the connectors.



Indeed. There is enough room!




Somehow I forgot to do the rust effect to the back of the mobo tray so that is going on right now. Once its done I can clear coat it and it will be good to go.

[Fuganater]

I've been doing lots and lots of thinking on how I am going to run the loop. I figured that I need to bring the loop through the midplate twice but I didn't want you to be able to see it the second time. So I measured and drilled a hole above the 4x120 rad and connected it with a Bitspower D-Plug for now. I ordered a 25mm extension to go there.






And here you can see where the pumps will be. I measured and the Bitspower dual D5 pump top should fit under it. If not, I ordered a second EK D5 pump top and ill connect them together using some 90 degree fittings and extensions.





I received my Lamptron FC10 too! I'll be doing a review on it soon.




The last bit for this update are the door panels. I like the 4 small windows in the bottom of the side panels for the rads to get air but I decided to make them into one big window.





Then I added some MNPCTECH Round Modder's Mesh.









That's it for today. I have the spray adhesive coming for gluing the leather fabric to the case and the gold spray paint for the accents and the water blocks. That should all be here Friday so I can do a good bit of work this weekend. I'm also hoping that the pump tops get here by this weekend too so I can do some more testing to figure out exactly what I'm going to do.

Cheers till then,

Fuga

Additional Comment:

Made myself a little banner.